Social Sciences

Conduct a research project with professors and graduate students in your field and build a portfolio for graduate school or the private sector. On this type of program, you'll take your skills, ideas, and perspectives to a new location abroad and learn new methods for developing and presenting your work. This type of program is ideal for pursuing a research idea independently under the guidance of a mentor. Choose this type of program if you want to work in facilities and with equipment not available on your home campus.

The McNair Scholars Program prepares qualified undergraduates for entrance to graduate programs in all fields of study. The goals of McNair are to increase the number of first-generation, low-income and/or underrepresented students in Ph.D. programs, ultimately diversifying academia, government, and industry, among other fields.

The Undergrad RA Directory is your go-to place for discovering new research projects taking place on campus. Professors can submit projects on a rolling basis to have their listing hosted on the directory. Although the Directory is categorized by department, don’t allow that to limit you. Many projects in the directory look for students from across the disciplines, so feel free to explore your interests and skills outside of your major or minor and get involved in interdisciplinary research.

The Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) unit in the College of Letters and Science encourages undergraduates conducting independent research projects or creative activities to apply for funding to support these efforts. The funding for URCA grants comes from university, federal, and private sources and is intended to cover a project’s expenses, included research-related domestic travel. If you receive an URCA grant, you will be expected to present your work at the Undergraduate Research Colloquium in May.

The Academic Research Consortium (ARC) Summer Program provides mentored research experiences in all disciplines to undergraduates at the junior level and graduate students at the Master’s level who are seeking to gain experience and prepare for doctoral programs at UC Santa Barbara. ​ARC targets talented and motivated students from Hispanic Serving Institutions who can benefit from additional academic support and career development.​